We make three fundamental mistakes around communication that can really jeopardize an otherwise viable relationship, and there are three important communication skills that can make the difference between an unhappy break-up and an ongoing, happy relationship.

A bad breakup can feel like a stun gun has been applied directly to the center of your chest. You can feel paralyzed, overwhelmed with pain and grief, confused and utterly lost. How does a person cope with such an assault to their emotional world?

The most wonderful time of year can be the worst time of year if you're going through a break-up right around this time. This list contains the basic stages (as experienced in my inner circle) of what it looks like to get through a break-up.

Speaking of meals, surround yourself with people who love you, and have meals with them. Have them over and prepare a meal or have them bring something. More points for friends and family who actually eat well, so you don't get a bucket of KFC and pint of sympathy ice cream for your dinner.

I threw away the only man who ever loved me, who I was in love with. I realize that this statement must elicit a bunch of questions. Ten years later, I still can't process, make sense of, or come to peace with this loss. I am alone and lonely, so much that it is slowly but surely eating me alive, day in and day out, from the inside out.

When it comes to letting go of relationships, certain themes always rise to the surface. Does it have to be all or nothing? So, how do you determine whether or not it's time to let someone go? Here is a list of five things I keep in mind before making that decision.

Being a good partner sometimes means renegotiating communication strategies so that the question "What's wrong?" isn't perpetually sloughed off. It sometimes means breathing through a bad few months and saying, "I accept this, I can do this, I don't have to fight it," even as you keep fighting for the relationship itself.

Fourteen months. Fourteen months is the time I have in my head for how long I would try to save my marriage if things started to go south (hopefully it will never come to that). But once we limp past the one year mark, I think I would rationally assess whether something has shifted so irrevocably in our relationship that it was time to take it off life support.

Perhaps all a parent can do, in these moments, is let their child be sad; at least for the first little while. Let them have the experience, because it's something we all have to live through at least once in our lives.

Here's something no one wants to hear: You aren't special because you made it through a bad break-up. Calling someone who had a bad break-up a "survivor" is a kind of First-World-Problems hyperbole. It belittles those who actually persevere and overcome true, life-threatening obstacles.

Whether the world is ending in 12 days, or my world ends in 60 years when I'm old and grey, I won't take a minute of it for granted, and I will not settle for anything less than a "I want to spend the rest of my life with you" kind of love.

As a men's image consultant, it is my job to transform men into their genuine selves, not the men society demands. When I first met Ted, he talked about his failed marriage and his imminent divorce. He said he numbed out and lost 20 pounds of muscle after his wife told him about her affair. Ted was a wounded man but he was ready to change. He just didn't know how.

A smart girl knows that getting dumped by your boyfriend is rarely a pleasant experience. It leaves some women angry, jaded and bitter. But that shouldn't justify committing these five breakup no-noes. Instead here are five alternatives to express how you really feel after getting dumped. After all, there's only one way for a smart girl to handle a breakup: with dignity, style and class.

In the weeks after my first real heartbreak, I made an effort to spend time with my ex in a misguided attempt to prove that, despite being brutally dumped, I was still awesome. He couldn't care less; he had already started dating someone else. But being around the source of my rage was eating me alive.

The zen master in me wants to put on a soothing voice and say that everything happens for a reason, that we learn from our pasts, and that pain can be a teacher. But let's talk instead about the ways of doing it with class; ways that make it hurt less and leave the door open to friendship. Maybe not right away, but eventually.